- Title
- Students’ perceptions of their employability as revealed by their understandings of the South African Labour Market
- Creator
- Gabobegwe, Maoshadi Keletso
- ThesisAdvisor
- Klerck, Gilton
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- text
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSocSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71482
- Identifier
- vital:29857
- Description
- The state of the South African labour market is characterized −among other things− by inequalities and the chronic issue of unemployment, with a rate that has come up to 27.7% in the third quarter of 2017. Considering this, unemployment in South Africa is explained by numerous authors as a structural issue. In a sense that unemployed people do not have the skills required by the labour market. But, since education attainment improves an individuals’ employment prospects and outcome. It would be expected that people with higher education would have high prospects of getting employment. Yet, people with higher education qualifications also face challenges of obtaining employment. Even though research finds that graduate unemployment is not as bad when compared to general and overall unemployment of the country. It still remains that skills shortages and/or mismatch are deemed to be the main contributor of the South African graduate unemployment. Existing research finds that just as the labour market is characterized with differences on the grounds of gender and race. This also reflects on how graduates enter the labour market. With the white race having more employment outcomes than blacks and males than females. It is against this background that this dissertation set out to explore what Rhodes University final-year students’ −who are nearing the transition from varsity to the labour market− perceive to be their employment prospects and outcomes. Taking into consideration the issue of unemployment and inequalities in the labour market. In essence, one of the key issues that the dissertation focuses on, is what students think of their employability based on their understanding of the labour market. More than that, the dissertation investigates how aspects such as the student’s field of study, race and gender factor into how students understand the labour market and ultimately how they perceive their employment prospects and outcomes. As a consequence, evidence suggests that students’ perceptions of the labour market influences how they perceive their employability. Over and above, the research finds that the students field of study especially, features significantly in how students perceive the labour market and their employability. While race and gender also factored in students’ responses, it was not as significant as compared to their field of study respectively. The general finding is that students are well aware of the issues of the labour market and are concerned about the implications of these issues on their employability. This awareness and concern varied based on students’ field of study, race and gender.
- Format
- 155 leaves, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Sociology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Gabobegwe, Maoshadi Keletso
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RU Department of Sociology
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